Research in the fundamental understanding of physical
processes related to the earth has seen increasing interest over the
past few decades. The effects on the global economy and well-being of
air and water pollution, earthquakes and weather events, and energy
production are some of the forces driving this research.

Geoscience research requires interdisciplinary
collaboration and the merging of mathematical modeling with
experiments and theory. By bringing together engineers,
mathematicians, computational scientists, and other researchers
working in industry, government laboratories, and universities,
meaningful progress can be made in understanding and predicting the
complex physical phenomena in the geosciences.